7 April 2019 News Sports

2019 MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP CEREMONY, IBRAHIM FORUM, CONCERT

 
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The Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s annual Governance Weekend honoured the past, assessed crucial African challenges, and spread the message of good governance to a young audience, Friday-Sunday 5-7 April.

 

The weekend began with a tribute to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In speeches from Ibrahim, Ivoirian President Alassane Ouattara, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Bono and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Annan’s achievements and legacy were honored. The ceremony also featured music from Congolese singer-songwriter Fally Ipupa.

 

The Leadership Ceremony is at the heart of the 2019 Ibrahim Governance Weekend, the flagship event of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation which takes place in a different African country each year.

 

Saturday, 6 April, saw the Ibrahim Forum, which this year focused on Immigration and Youth Unemployment, and featured discussion with President Ouattara, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Vera Songwe, Founder of the Africa 2.0 Foundation and Chairman and CEO of Ubuntu Capital Mamadou Toure, President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Akinwumi Adesina, and President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation Aliko Dangote. 

 

The weekend ends with its annual concert, bringing the Foundation’s focus on good governance to a wider, younger audience through music. This year’s line-up included Ivoirian artists Shado Chris, Safarel Obiang, and Serge Beynaud, legend Youssou NDour as well as Fally Ipupa.

 

Shotlist: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (5 April 2019)

  1. Wide shots of arrivals, audience and stage 
  2. Mo Ibrahim, Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, welcoming attendees, saying “Tonight actually we are celebrating the legacy of a great son of Arica, Kofi Annan of Ghana. We are celebrating. This is not a wake. This is a party. We’re going to have music; were going to have fun because we are rally grateful for having Kofi in our lives, working with us and inspiring us. So we want to celebrate that; so no handkerchiefs.”
  3. Bono speaking about Kofi Annan, saying, “If Kofi was a singer, I thought, ‘What would he be?’ He’d be a crooner, wouldn’t he? I knew he loved Nat King Cole. He was certainly more Bing Crosby than Frank Sinatra. I sang with Frank Sinatra, was proud to, but he had a voice like a fist. Kofi, I thought, turned fists into open hands and outstretched arms.”
  4. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed speaking, saying, “Friends, the world today needs more leaders like Kofi Annan. We are living in a period in which we are finding our core values and our multinational foundations under treat. Inequality is certainly on the rise among and especially within countries. Trust in political establishments is on the decline. Intolerance, extremism and virulent nationalisms are increasingly widespread. People are nervous about jobs and about the prospects of their children’s future. Kofi’s example can inspire us as we seek to meet these challenges, especially in our mother Africa.

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (6 April 2019)

  1. Shots of audience and forum
  2. Former Liberian President and Ibrahim Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf speaking about youth unemployment.
  3. Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Vera Songwe speaking about unemployment, saying, “Rwanda has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Africa. Rwanda is the only country in Africa that has signed the free movement of people. So if you’re an IT specialist on the continent today and you want to move to Rwanda, you go to Rwanda. The good news is also that in West Africa, West Africans, 60 percent of the West Africans say they want more migration. We would say, ‘Are they crazy? Everybody says we don’t want migration. Why are they asking for that?’ And I think Mo talked about it as well.”
  4. President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation Aliko Dangote in conversation with Mo Ibrahim, speaking about free trade and corruption.
  5. Ivoirian President Alassane Ouattara speaking (French), about open borders.

                Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire(7 April 2019)

  1. Highlights of Serge Beynaud, Youssou NDour and Fally Ipupa performing.
7 April 2019